Hey guys,

I've been baking with sourdough for a little while now, and have
pretty much gotten the hang of working with my whole wheat starter,
though I do usually use the same recipe every time.

Anyway, the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book that I have been using
has a recipe using a spelt starter, so I made one from scratch, and
that went well; within a few of days it was bubbling up quite nicely.
So I tried
making the bread. The recipe calls for one tablespoon levian to be
mixed up with 1 cup spelt flour and 1/2 cup unchlorinated water, and
left overnight at room temperature. The next day, the levian is
supposed to be bubbly and expanded.

However, the next day there was barely any activity. I decided to
leave it be, and see what happened, and after about another 12 hours,
it did look bubbly. Of course, then I didn't have time to bake.

What went wrong?

Could it be:
a) that too small an amount of starter was used? To me, a tablespoon
seemed a pretty small amount...The other breads I've made have used
more, even the ones left overnight.

b) the (possibly) too cool temperature of the room? It's winter here
in montreal, and I have baseboard heating...

c) something else???

What should I do next time?

Should I:
a) use more starter? If so, how should I adjust the liquid/flour
content of the recipe?
b) expect the pre-ferment to take twice as long? Will this make the
bread really sour?
c) use a different recipe altogether? (suggestions...)

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sarah